CRC funded reports

1998-1999

The Council received reports from 7 completed research projects during the year 1998-99. Summaries of
these reports are given below. These reports are held by the Australian Institute of Criminology's
JV Barry Library and are available on inter-library loan. For full bibliographic information on any
report, search the Library's Catalogue.

The Guns Act 1991 introduced licensing for all firearms in Tasmania. It aimed
to reduce deaths from suicide, to reduce accidents caused by guns and to reduce
the level of violence in the community. This study attempted to evaluate these
aims by looking at the impact of the Act on suicide, homicide, accidental gun
deaths and injuries and the use of firearms in crime.

The relationship between childhood aggression and early adolescent aggressive and delinquent behaviours

In the context of substantial changes in family types and even family quality
over recent times, this study is concerned with the extent to which family type
and quality impacts on child behaviour problems. A sample of 8556 pregnant
women were enrolled in a longitudinal prospective study. Details of changes in
family type and family quality (addressed using Spanier dyadic adjustment scale)
were used to predict three second order syndromes developed from the Child
Behaviour Check List and administered to the mothers when the child was 5 years
of age.

Mothers who experience no partner changes (married and single) report their
children to have the lowest rates of child behaviour problems for the three
syndromes used in this study. In addition mothers who more often describe their
relationship with their partner as poor also report their children to have the
highest rate of behaviour problems across all three syndromes. Adjustment for
possible confounders does not alter these findings. Both changes of partner and
dyadic conflict appear to lead to child behaviour problems, with the latter
factor appearing to have a greater impact than the former. Mothers who
experience no partner changes and no conflict appear to have children with the
lowest behaviour problems.

The research explores the concept of risk as it relates to the treatment of
offenders at various points in the criminal justice system. The inquiry begins
with an exploration of the notion of risk in modern societies. It is clear that
risk can be regarded as a core organising concept in late the 20th century
world. 'Risk society' is concerned with the future, with control and with
safety and the significance of risk derives from these preoccupations, not from
any objective increase in the hazards and dangers to its citizens. In
criminological settings risk has come much closer to centre-stage. Indeed, some
writers, such as Feeley and Simon, see 'actuarial justice' as proceeding
inexorably and transforming older forms of justice and their concepts. Others
such as Garland argue that the field of crime control manifests an uneven and
often incoherent mix of policies and practices where the influence of 'actuarial
justice' competes not only with older paradigms of proportionality and
rehabilitation, but with a morally-charged 'expressive punitiveness' which has
considerable political influence.

Risk is then examined in its more specific contexts of sentencing and parole
decision-making. It is immediately evident that there are differences in
approach to risk at the various points in the criminal justice process. For
example, notions of 'risk' and 'dangerousness' have had, and continue to have, a
limited but growing role in the legislation governing sentencing whereas
Australian courts of appeal have generally reaffirmed the centrality of
principles of 'proportionality' or 'just deserts' in sentencing practice
particularly as they relate to adult offenders. The research illustrates this
through a detailed analysis of recent Western Australian legislation. It is
evident that risk may be defined in different ways within the same Act and that
at other times it dealt with ambiguously or inconsistently. In the context of
individual sentencing decisions these different meanings of risk can conflict
with each other and with other principles such as proportionality.

The study then draws on the results of empirical research on risk assessment in
Western Australia. It relates these results to the 'risk' literature which has
come to dominate discussions of correctional supervision and treatment programs
in North America and have increasingly influenced correctional administrators in
Australia and the United Kingdom. The analysis examines risk in the context of
offender supervision. A key question addressed in this analysis concerns the
utility of risk assessment in providing guidance about the treatment of
supervised offenders and also in the provision of pre-sentence reports. It is
clear that there are some tensions between considerations of risk and other
principles of 'treatment'.

One of the major outcomes of the study is its concrete demonstration of the need
for 'risk' to be specified carefully in specific contexts. Risk is too easily
discussed in a singular way, as if its application is self-explanatory. Yet, a
useful risk assessment requires a precise specification of the nature of the
risk in question, the time frame of the assessment, and some specification of
those considered to be at risk.

The aims of the report are to sketch the theoretical basis of a series of safety
action projects in three diverse North Queensland cities (Cairns, Townsville and
Mackay), and to report some results. These projects, which aimed to improve the
safety of licensed environments in the central city entertainment areas, are
replications of the safety action model developed in Surfers Paradise.

Key features of the approach include creating a steering committee and community
forum; forming task groups to address safety of public spaces, management of
venues, and security and policing; encouraging venue managers to introduce a
Code of Practice; and regulating managers through informal community processes
as well as formal enforcement. The model is based on: prior experience with
community interventions; the theory of situational crime prevention; and
regulatory theory.

The results are based on police data and on unobtrusive direct observations by
patron-observers of aggression, drinking, and serving practices in licensed
venues in the three cities in September 1994 and October 1996. The
interventions took place in each city during 1995 and early 1996. From the
observational data, there was a decline of 56.5% in all aggressive and violent
incidents, and a decline of at least 75% in physical assaults, although
conclusions concerning direct causality cannot be drawn. These declines, which
did not differ significantly between cities, coincided with reductions in the
levels of perceived "permissiveness" in venues, increases in sociability,
cheerfulness and friendliness, and a range of significant improvements in host
responsibility practices and a marked decline in levels of male drunkenness.
Patronage (and crowding) increased and prices stayed the same, suggesting no
decline in levels of profitability.

Police data for Cairns and Townsville, but not Mackay, showed reductions in many
types of street offences corresponding to the periods when the project officer
was active or the Code of Practice was implemented, but there are difficulties
in interpreting the police data (especially in Townsville). There are also good
reasons for not expecting a close correlation between police data on street
offences and observations of behaviours within venues, since many incidents
within venues are not reported or recorded. Overall, the police data for Cairns
and Townsville, but not Mackay, are consistent with the reductions in aggression
observed within venues.

Assuming some causal impact of the interventions, identification of "critical"
components is problematic, one conclusion being that there are many paths to the
same destination. However, whatever intervention techniques are employed, a
reduction in male drunkenness seems important to reduce physical violence.

A survey of a large sample of security managers revealed scepticism about the
success of the Queensland Security Providers Act in reducing misconduct in the
security industry. Respondents felt the licensing system was too restricted and
enforcement was too weak to professionalise the industry to the desired
standard; although there was some support for improved entry-level competency
standards as a result of minimum training requirements. There was strong
support for a range of reform measures. Respondents wanted comprehensive
licensing of all industry sectors linked to a national system, improved training
and assessment, frequent criminal history checks on licensees, more vigorous
compliance monitoring, and compulsory insurance and monitoring of firms for
award payments. National co-ordination of the states and territories and the
security industry is needed to achieve these goals.

Compare and assess the benefits of treatment programs for male child sexual offenders in correctional services against the costs of implementing such programs

This paper reports on a cost-benefit analysis of child sex offender treatment
programs for male offenders in correctional services. This study provides an
overview of child sex abuse issues and provides a description of cognitive
therapy treatment programs in several countries and around Australia. It then
discusses the methodological and practical issues involved with the economic
analysis of offender treatment programs and child sexual abuse as well as
presenting findings based on South Australian data. A comprehensive list of the
effects of child sexual abuse is outlined and there is a discussion of the
methodological difficulties in attributing values to these. Despite these
difficulties, overall estimates of the cost of programs and the benefits derived
from lowering recidivism are reported, together with a sensitivity analysis of
the results. The magnitude of the problem of child sexual abuse generally and
offences by recidivists in particular, suggest the range of potential economic
costs from child sexual abuse are substantial and the economic benefits to be
achieved from appropriate and effective treatment programs high. Given the
application of recent economic techniques to measure the intangible costs of
child sex abuse and the methodological and informational problems encountered,
the study can be considered a major first step towards a comprehensive economic
analysis of in-prison child sex offender treatment programs that also provides a
framework for future research efforts.

Does the spatial clustering of homes in which child abuse occurs reflect the operation of micro-social environments?

Following an earlier study of neighbourhoods and child abuse, subsequent mapping
of confirmed cases of abuse in the study area revealed that they were spatially
clustered. Rather than work on the traditional collectors' district (CD) as the
unit of study, the data from the earlier project, which had been analysed by
CDs, was re-analysed according to whether or not respondents lived within the
identified clusters areas. This re-analysis yielded significantly different
results from the earlier investigation. Cluster area residents were
significantly more likely to entertain negative perceptions of their
neighbourhood, than residents not in the clusters. They were more likely to
feel they did not belong, to want to move out given the opportunity, to not
value association with others in their neighbourhood and to view the locality as
a poor place to raise children.

In an additional small study human service practitioners in the area accurately
identified the cluster areas and the micro-social environments existing within
them. This may indicate that, in working to prevent child abuse, directing
scarce resources at larger aggregations of families may be less efficient than
working within a small number of identified street blocks.